42 U.S.C. § 2000a — Prohibition against discrimination or segregation in places of public accommodation

This law says that places open to the public cannot deny you equal access because of your race, color, religion, or national origin. It covers the services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations those businesses offer. A hotel cannot refuse you a room, a restaurant cannot segregate diners, and a theater cannot treat you differently because you belong to one of those protected groups.

The law covers these kinds of businesses when they serve the public and either their operations affect commerce—a broad term covering travel, trade, transportation, communication, and transactions across state^* or international borders—or state action supports the discrimination:

• Hotels, motels, inns, and similar lodging for short-term guests. A small lodging business is excluded if it has no more than five rooms for rent and the owner^* actually lives there. That exception keeps the law from reaching someone renting out a few rooms in their own home.
• Restaurants and other businesses principally selling food for eating on the premises, including counters and dining facilities inside retail stores.
• Gasoline stations.
• Movie theaters, theaters, concert halls, sports arenas, stadiums, and other entertainment venues.
• Businesses located inside a covered establishment, or businesses that contain one, if they present themselves as serving that establishment’s customers. So if a barbershop operates inside a covered hotel and serves the hotel’s patrons, it is covered too.

For food businesses and gas stations, interstate commerce can include serving travelers from other states, selling food or products that crossed state lines, or selling gasoline that moved through interstate commerce. Entertainment venues are covered when they regularly present movies, performances, athletic teams, exhibitions, or other entertainment that moves across state lines. A business inside another covered business generally inherits coverage from that connection.

State action can support discrimination in several ways:

• A state or local law, ordinance, regulation, or official practice authorizes or carries it out.
• Officials require or enforce it as part of a local custom or usage.
• The state or local government directly requires it.

This section addresses access to public accommodations. It does not itself set rules for employment or housing.

The law generally does not apply to a private club or another establishment not actually open to the public. But that protection does not cover facilities the club makes available to customers or patrons of a covered public business. For example, if a private club operates a facility for the guests of a covered hotel, that facility can still fall under the law.